Manmohan Singh prescribes medical reforms

New Delhi (DC)Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed concern over deterioration in quality of medical education in the country and said a credible regulatory and institutional mechanism should be put in place.

Addressing students on the third convocation of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) here, he said the situation should be corrected and “we must put in place a credible regulatory and institutional mechanism to help develop standards in medical education”.

He said doctors should be trained to look at health in a holistic manner, beyond a narrow clinical and technology-driven approach.

“Students training to be doctors have to be prepared to work with local communities and in our villages... Medical education should accordingly be reconfigured to produce a technically-competent, socially-sensitive, ethically-correct and ready-to-serve health professionals who can respond to the diverse demands of India’s health needs,” he said.

The government has decided to extend the National Rural Health Mission for another five years. “We are now proposing a new National Urban Health Mission to focus on the health challenges in our towns and cities,” Dr Singh said.

The Centre and state governments should deal with the “scarcity of doctors and health personnel,” he urged.